Test Card Dummies



A small selection from the hundreds of YouTube hosted testcard transmissions. The BBC version is quite possibly the most important piece of post-war British graphic design. They seem to combine nostgalgia for childhoods lost mixed with the irony of posting essentially still images (albeit with super soundtracks) on a website dedicated to the dissemination of video.

Some international test cards too:

And one for Channel M in Manchester that features Frank Sidebottom:

You might think it strange that Test Cards, used when TV stations closed down for the evening (or even - incredible to think of now - during the day) have become YouTube fetishes. It's even stranger that some test card enthusiasts are making recreations of test cards, what you might call Test Card dummies

Posted by sam at June 5, 2007 9:05 AM



Previously trans_blank.gif

A Cubist Copse: Gehrys Serpentine Pavilion trans_blank.gif

Olympic Model Protesttrans_blank.gif

Spouting Off: Some Thoughts On The Fountainheadtrans_blank.gif

Form Follows Dysfunction: Bad Construction & The Morality of Detailtrans_blank.gif

Floating Homestrans_blank.gif

Vintage Tradeshow Surrealism: International Grune Wochetrans_blank.gif

Moving Houses: Buildings In Motiontrans_blank.gif

Desktop Study: The Strange World of Sports Studio Designtrans_blank.gif

Married to the Eiffel Tower: More Objectum Sexualstrans_blank.gif

60 Years of The Crazy Horse Memorialtrans_blank.gif

Married to the Berlin Wall: "The Best and Sexiest Wall Ever Existed!"trans_blank.gif

Inflatable Icebergs: Sublimated Guilt Has Never Been So Funtrans_blank.gif

The Cinderella Effect: Phantom Architectures of Illuminationtrans_blank.gif

Two Deaths and a Retirement: The Strange Shape of British Architecturetrans_blank.gif

If London Were Like New York: Antique Schizo-Manhattanismtrans_blank.gif

If London Were Like Venice: Antique Geo-Poetic Speculations and Hydro-Fantasytrans_blank.gif

41 Hours in an Elevator: The Movietrans_blank.gif

NASA: Mapping the Moon with Sporttrans_blank.gif

Lemon Squeezy: Design Tendencies after the Juicy Salif trans_blank.gif

Stadium Seat Mosaicstrans_blank.gif

The Nihilistic Beauty of Weapons Arranged in Patternstrans_blank.gif

Light Vessel Automatatrans_blank.gif

Dogs: Britains Greatest Design Obsessiontrans_blank.gif

Madison Avenue Moderntrans_blank.gif

Detroit Sucks: The Motor Shows Last Gasptrans_blank.gif

Mies' Grave: Cut Out Modeltrans_blank.gif

All You Can Eattrans_blank.gif

Valentine Machinetrans_blank.gif

The Tools of Re-Geographytrans_blank.gif

Floating in a New Town Skytrans_blank.gif

Authentic Replicas: Football and the Franchising of Placetrans_blank.gif

Folk Football: Landscape, Space and Abstractiontrans_blank.gif

Haystack Housetrans_blank.gif

A Wishing Well with a Fat Up Pipetrans_blank.gif

The Camoufluers and the Day-Glo Battleshiptrans_blank.gif

Pseudoccino: Instant Coffee Foamtrans_blank.gif

Yesterdays Technology, Todaytrans_blank.gif

Blown Up: More Inflatable Military Stufftrans_blank.gif

On Christmas Trees, Folk Forests and Staples Office Suppliestrans_blank.gif

Hampton Courts Shrouded Sculpturestrans_blank.gif

Named Fabric: 20 Sponsored Pieces of Architecture at the New Museumtrans_blank.gif

Form Follows Felony: The Secret Home of the Un-Dead Canoeist.trans_blank.gif

Architectural Magazines: Paranoid Beliefs, Public Autotheraphy - More on Clip/Stamp/Foldtrans_blank.gif

Little Magazines Seen Todaytrans_blank.gif

James Bond Lives Next Door: Suburban Imagery as Industrytrans_blank.gif

The Ghost of Christmas Futurismtrans_blank.gif

Petrified War Machinetrans_blank.gif

Military Deceptionstrans_blank.gif

Chapters for an Imaginary Book About Architecturetrans_blank.gif

Shrouded Plinth - Urban Stripteasetrans_blank.gif

In the Night Garden - Surreal Landscape of Nostalgia trans_blank.gif

Kim Jong II, The Great Architecttrans_blank.gif

Pill Box Picturesquetrans_blank.gif

Un Clear Monumenttrans_blank.gif

Place Faking: Instant Heritage for the Thames Gatewaytrans_blank.gif

The Marc Bolan Memorial Crash Barrier. trans_blank.gif

Warped Domesticitytrans_blank.gif

The Nuclear Heritage Coasttrans_blank.gif

Enjoy The Silence: Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones trans_blank.gif

The Story of O (2) trans_blank.gif

Telly Savalas Looks At Birminghamtrans_blank.gif

X100: A Design Exercisetrans_blank.gif

How to Plan A New Towntrans_blank.gif

Carpet Bombertrans_blank.gif

In Search of Britains Vehicular Historytrans_blank.gif

Scenes in Cartoon Desertatrans_blank.gif

Scary Suburbanism: Why Horror is at Home in the Suburbstrans_blank.gif

Re-Make Re-Modeltrans_blank.gif

I Like Your Manifesto, Lets Put it to the Test-otrans_blank.gif

How to Become a Famous Architecttrans_blank.gif

Northampton - Sci-fi Pop Planning Promotiontrans_blank.gif

Advertising Central Milton Keynestrans_blank.gif

Baltic Exchangedtrans_blank.gif

Festival of Nostalgiatrans_blank.gif

The Clapham Trainwashtrans_blank.gif

Airports as Musictrans_blank.gif

Test Card Dummiestrans_blank.gif

The Velvet Underground at the Glass Housetrans_blank.gif

Duplikate: Kate Moss on the Production Line of Individuality trans_blank.gif

The Museum that Ate Itselftrans_blank.gif

Hollow Inside: Starbucks Foam and the Rise of Ambiguous Materials trans_blank.gif

Revisions to the Architecture of Helltrans_blank.gif

Crufts: Dogs, Design and Aesthetic Genetics trans_blank.gif

Eos Airlines: Executive Bubbles over the Atlantic trans_blank.gif

London's Ugliest Buildingstrans_blank.gif

1.51 Miles Of Stringtrans_blank.gif

Google Earths Vertiginous Mapping trans_blank.gif

Church of the Ascension and Descension trans_blank.gif

Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles trans_blank.gif

Replica Bombs trans_blank.gif

The Invisible Bungalow trans_blank.gif

House / Boat trans_blank.gif

Reading Lines: Skateboarding and Public Space trans_blank.gif

Mountain Sculpting trans_blank.gif

Sint Lucas in BD trans_blank.gif

Bat House Competition trans_blank.gif

Old Walton Bridge trans_blank.gif

Kiruna: The Town That Moved trans_blank.gif

Spray On Magnetic Defense trans_blank.gif

Chris Cornish: Prototyping History trans_blank.gif

The Jubilee Gestalt Vase trans_blank.gif

The Most Visited Location in the UK trans_blank.gif

Anything to Feel Weightless Again: The Cargo Lifter and the Tropical Island Resort trans_blank.gif

'Its beauty will know no season' trans_blank.gif

2000 Years of Non Stop Nostalgia. Or How Half Timbering Made Me Whole Again. trans_blank.gif

Inside-out Aldwych trans_blank.gif

Backpeddling into the Future: The Historical-Futurism of British Architecture trans_blank.gif

Miss Selfridges' Feeling for Fake Snow. The Oxford St. Lights and Why We Need Artificial Winter trans_blank.gif

Nelsons Cavern trans_blank.gif

Foam Gargoyle trans_blank.gif

New Tory Logo: A Hazy Shade of Politics trans_blank.gif

Jeff Koons, Rem Koolhaas, Hans Ulrich Obrist at the Serpentine trans_blank.gif

Souvenir Empire trans_blank.gif

Celebrity Scents: The Bittersweet Smell of Success trans_blank.gif

Imperfect Pitch - Football, Space and Landscape trans_blank.gif

Product Placement: Making the Impossible Possible trans_blank.gif

Suburban Growth: Matthew Moores Field of Dreams trans_blank.gif

Perfect Sound Forever: The Secret Function of High End Stereos trans_blank.gif

Picture of the Week 1 trans_blank.gif

A Little Light Product Placement trans_blank.gif

Some Advice To A Young Designer trans_blank.gif

London and on and on trans_blank.gif

In the Gallery of Ice Creams trans_blank.gif

Useless Proclamations for a Beautiful City trans_blank.gif

Mini Mies Chair trans_blank.gif

Topsy Turvy VSBA: Inverted Heros of an Upside Down Avant Guard trans_blank.gif

Harvest III: Buried Things trans_blank.gif

The Harvest II trans_blank.gif

The Harvest I trans_blank.gif

Estuary Urbanism trans_blank.gif

The Royal Families Trees trans_blank.gif

Everything Flows: ideological cartography trans_blank.gif

How Geostationary Was My Valley? trans_blank.gif

The Psychotic Utopia of the Suburbs and the Suburbanisation of War. trans_blank.gif

LegoLand London Cluster trans_blank.gif

In a Lonely Place - Under Construction trans_blank.gif

Design Will Eat Itself trans_blank.gif

Mach 3 Nitro Gel - Design that's foaming at the mouth. trans_blank.gif

Marchitecture. Architectural things to do in London this March trans_blank.gif

Metallic Jet Powered Cloud trans_blank.gif

"When we got married I had no idea he would do something like this, he just said he was going to do some decorating." trans_blank.gif

The Electric Cenotaph trans_blank.gif

Russian Rok trans_blank.gif

Commitment ... trans_blank.gif

Dinner in the Iguanadon trans_blank.gif

Trace trans_blank.gif

What happens when you cross a pen with a car? trans_blank.gif

Leg Table Leg trans_blank.gif

Florentine Building Sites trans_blank.gif

Good Morning Britain trans_blank.gif

Football Pitch: Best of British trans_blank.gif

The Sad Photographer trans_blank.gif

The First Cut is the Cheapest - Blenheim Palace: pop architecture that goes for the jugular trans_blank.gif

Book Now For Christmas trans_blank.gif

Requiem for a Toilet Seat trans_blank.gif

Architecture that Destroys trans_blank.gif

TomTom Mobile 5 / GO 700 trans_blank.gif

Winning Design trans_blank.gif

Another Croydon trans_blank.gif

Holiday Snap II : Giant Glowing French Balls trans_blank.gif

Holiday Snap: Canadian War Memorial, Vimy, France trans_blank.gif

Pecha Kucha London trans_blank.gif

Anatomy of an Architectural News Story trans_blank.gif

Big Bens trans_blank.gif

First Cut - Case Closed trans_blank.gif

The Texas Tower trans_blank.gif

Its All About the Big Benjamins trans_blank.gif

G8 Security Tower trans_blank.gif

White Cubed Blues trans_blank.gif

Poundbury, unexpectedly, in the rain trans_blank.gif

The Exploding Concrete Inevitable. Lou Reed and the Casa da Musica trans_blank.gif

Swingball trans_blank.gif

Untitled (Plastic Sack and Timber) trans_blank.gif

Berlin 1945 - The Obscene Picturesque trans_blank.gif

Pizza Planet trans_blank.gif

Goal Sculptures trans_blank.gif

Interview: Jeremy Deller & Alan Kane trans_blank.gif

Previewing Cedric Price trans_blank.gif

The Mardas Touch trans_blank.gif

Building a Lionel Richie Head trans_blank.gif

Ornament is Grime 2 trans_blank.gif

An Incredible Smell of Roasting Coffee trans_blank.gif

Flatpack Frenzy at New IKEA trans_blank.gif

Langlands & Bell - The House of Osama Bin Laden trans_blank.gif

Labour is kind of working trans_blank.gif

Happy Death Men trans_blank.gif

Build to Let trans_blank.gif

Architectural Criticism gets Sharp trans_blank.gif

Niagara Falls trans_blank.gif

Ornament is Grime trans_blank.gif

FA(ke) Cup trans_blank.gif

Q&A: Wouter Vanstiphout trans_blank.gif

X-treme urinals trans_blank.gif

Unigate Cowscape trans_blank.gif

Spray-on Snow trans_blank.gif

From the Baffler ... trans_blank.gif

One in a Taxi trans_blank.gif

The Queen Machine trans_blank.gif

The Knork trans_blank.gif

Venturi, Scott Brown and my love that dare not speak its name. trans_blank.gif

Polictical Placards trans_blank.gif

The Ketchup Conumdrum trans_blank.gif

Douglas Coupland: Design and Fiction trans_blank.gif

It's a Small Worldtrans_blank.gif

Images de Parfums trans_blank.gif

Soft Carcass trans_blank.gif

Christopher Dresser at the V&A trans_blank.gif

Blow up Pub trans_blank.gif

Municipal Mummification trans_blank.gif

The Matt and Ron Show trans_blank.gif

Semi - detached trans_blank.gif

Half Timbered Van trans_blank.gif

Feltham Future trans_blank.gif

Favorite Things trans_blank.gif

Fugitives and Refugees' - Chuck Palahniuk trans_blank.gif

The Pop Vernacular trans_blank.gif

Design by Chefs trans_blank.gif

Just What is it That Makes Yesterdays Homes So Different, So Appealing? trans_blank.gif

Archigrams Pastoral Futurism trans_blank.gif

Sorry Mies trans_blank.gif

Everything Counts - The Sound of Geography Collapsing. trans_blank.gif

Carlton Terrace Extension trans_blank.gif

Projects trans_blank.gif

trans_blank.gif roadcollagetiny1.jpg
Highways

trans_blank.gif coathook.jpg
Fork Hook

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Rest In Peace

trans_blank.gif dreaminnew.jpg
California Dreamin'

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